Emerald Huntsman
by Shawon718
Summary: Harry Potter, AKA Fate's favorite chew toy has now found himself in a predicament. He's trapped, trapped in the world of bloody evolution, trapped in Remnant. With no way back he decides to start a new life, hopeful that things won't go badly as last time. Warning: Violence and Language. MOD-Harry Potter
1. Chapter 1

I don't own RWBY or Harry Potter.

 **AN:** Hi! This is my first fanfic and I wanted it to start off with something special. So I decided on doing a cross-over fic on Harry Potter and RWBY. Hope you guys like it and constructive criticism is welcome as English is not my native language. So without further delay let's start.

* * *

 _ **Dear passengers, we are about to land on Beacon Air Station, I repeat we are about land on Beacon Air Station.**_

Emerald eyes slowly opened as the pilot announced their destination. A young man yawned and stood up from his nap, and looked around.

'There sure are a lot of interesting people here.'He thought. 'I wonder how different they are from home.'

He sighed and looked out the clear glass of the observation deck and could see several towers at the distant. As the airship came closer he noticed a slight glow of green surrounding the towers, with tallest shining an emerald light skywards.

'Are those wards? ' He mused 'Maybe I'll ask Ozpin about it later.'

He looked through the glass again but this time at his own reflection. Bright green eyes reminiscent of a certain green gem were the first things to be noticed, than the untamed jet-black hair and pale face. He looked at his cloths, just a simple black shirt and a green hoodie with black sleeves, paired with cargo pants and light green converse. There was also an emblem on his right bicep, a gold shield with a red lion.

He wasn't tall, somewhere between 5'6 and 5'8. If one doesn't look closely, then they would assume that he was skinny, without much meat on his bones. But any veteran warrior will instantly notice the coiled muscles and battle ready posture, only acquired from battles in life or death situations.

But what stood out to him the most was the fading lightning bolt scar on his forehead. He frowned at it. It was reminder, a reminder of a life he once had and a life he was denied of.

'Damn you snake face.' He thought angrily. 'If I was just a bit more careful, this wouldn't have happened.' He massaged his temple as memories come flooding into his mind ' No, don't think, don't think, it's in the past, there's nothing you could do.'

He rolled back his left sleeve and looked at a tattoo. "I have so much power but I can't do anything to go back." He said to no one in particular, frowning at his own predicament.

That frown was instantly replaced with a small smile as he felt the airship land on one of the docking zones. He walked back to the wall behind him picked up a scabbard and strapped it his back and picked up his bag and followed all the other passengers outside.

As he walked out of the airship he looked ahead, at castle-like structure reminding of him of his home.

"Welcome to Beacon." he said to himself smiling.

* * *

The courtyard of Beacon was as magnificent as the school itself. Cobbled brick roads led to multiple facilities all over the campus and freshly trimmed lawns surrounded it with an occasional tree or two.

In the very center was a fountain and a large statute. A man and woman with swords were standing on a ridge-like structure, with a creature of Grimm, a beowolf, under them. It was a reminder that humanity will never fall to the darkness and that they will fight for their survival, no matter the cost.

The young man walked past this fountain marveling at the grounds and the architecture. ' This place is quite amazing ' He thought, ' It almost reminds me of Hogwarts, well, Hogwarts before the war. But it also looks different, a bit more modern, I guess.'

 **BOOOOOM!**

The sudden sound of an explosion startled him, he immediately went for his sword, only to stop and look around to see that people his age were gathering at the same spot. Deciding to find out what all the commotion was about, he walked towards the crowd where a high a pitch voice, most likely a girl, was shouting at someone.

As he came closer he saw the crowd disperse as a pale young woman with white hair tied as an off center pony tail, wearing a white bolero jacket, short skirt and heels walk towards the main campus building with five or so butlers behind.

' Huh, she reminds of a certain ferret ' He thought to himself and then nearly gagged at the idea of a female version of said ferret. ' That is one image I would rather use memory charm to forget.'

He looked back and saw a young girl a year two younger than him lying near a crater, most probably caused by the aforementioned explosion. Deciding to help her, the young man walked up to the crater and got a proper look at her.

The girl had black hair with a reddish tinge and wore a long sleeved thick black blouse with a high collar and red trim on the sleeves, a black waist cincher with red lacing up the front, and a black skirt with red trim. She was also wearing a pair of thick black stockings and black combat boots. He also spied a red metallic object strapped behind her back. ' Most likely her weapon.' he thought.

But what stood out was the red hood that reached up to her knees, fastened by crosses on her shoulder and her eyes. They were silver, and held certain a sense of innocence that almost compelled him to protect her somehow.

"Um" , he was broken out of thoughts and realized that he was staring, composing himself he looked at her and held out his hand, and asked "Rough first day?". "Yeah", said the girl taking his hand standing back up. She looked back at the campus building and puffed her cheeks cutely, " I cant believe she left me here."

"Who ?" , asked the young man behind her. She turned back and answered " My sister." , and awkwardly held out her hand and said " I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose, it's nice meet you."

The young man merely smiled at here awkwardness, feeling like he met a kindred spirit, he shook her hand and said, " I'm Harry, Harry Potter."

* * *

AN: Whooo, now that's done. Hopefully this is ok. I'll update as fast as I can.


	2. Chapter 2

I don't own RWBY and Harry Potter.

 **Constructive criticisms are welcome and enjoy the chapter.**

 **Chapter 2: Friends We Haven't Met Yet.**

For the first time in her life, Ruby Rose actually felt like she made a real friend. Sure she had "friends" back at Signal, but they only interacted with her for her skills in weapon crafts. Most of the time, the girls in her class only talked to her out of either pity or politeness. The boys talked to her for Yang's scroll number, that didn't end well, for them.

Ruby wasn't stupid, she knew she was awkward. It was hard for her to interact with people and spending all day at the forge didn't help either. Sure, she had Yang, Uncle Qrow and her dad, she loved them to bits, but sometimes, she really needed a friend and now, she had one.

'Ha! Take that Yang, I actually do have social skills.' she thought happily as chibi sized Rubys were doing a victory dance in her head.

"Uh, Ruby, could you stop shaking my hand?" a familiar voice asked. Broken out of her impromptu day dream she looked at Harry and then looked at her hand, which was still shaking Harry's. Her cheeks slightly turned pink as she immediately took her hand back.

"Heh, heh sorry about that." she laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of her head. Harry just smiled amusedly at the awkward reaper. "It's fine." He said, "Anybody can get nervous on their first day." He looked at the crater on the pavement, "So, what happened here?" he asked. Ruby sighed, "Well it involved my sister, crabby white haired girl named Weiss and Dust."

Before he could ask her to elaborate, she proceeded to go on a tangent about her crappy first day, the Weiss girl and sneezing on fire Dust for the next five minutes. Harry watched her rant with an awkward smile masking his slight annoyance, -"and then I met you. Thanks for helping me up by the way." she finished with a cute smile.

Whatever annoyance he felt, immediately evaporated as Harry oddly felt compelled to protect Ruby. He shook his head of the thought and asked, "Aren't we supposed to go to the main hall for the headmaster's welcoming speech?" Ruby's eye widened as she remembered. She looked around the courtyard frantically, and then looked back at Harry desperately.

"Please tell me you know the way?" she asked, Harry smiled and brought out a small paper out of his pocket, "Yeah." She pumped her fist into the air happily, "Let's go Harry, you lead!" and started to walk forwards. Smiling at her enthusiasm and energy, Harry looked at the map. The grand hall wasn't far from here, they can get there on time.

"Um, excuse me?" a new voice appeared behind them and they looked back at the source. He was tall, yet kind of scraggly, the kind that a single punch will knock him out. He had blue eyes and blonde hair. He was wearing a black hoodie with flimsy looking armor, paired with jeans, sneakers and a pair of fingerless gloves. There was also a sword strapped to his side hidden inside a white sheath.

"Hey, ah, do you guys know where the main hall is?" he asked. "There isn't anybody around, and the grounds are kinda large…..and I'm kind of lost."

'How the hell did this guy get through, he doesn't even look like someone with experience.'-was the first thought to go through Harry's mind. 'He doesn't have his guard up and his overall posture is wrong.' he added.

He looked back at Ruby and could easily see that her guard was up as the stranger came towards them and from the way her fingers twitched indicated her combat awareness. Harry looked back at the boy, and was still confused, the boy had no combat awareness meaning absolutely no experience at all. Shelving this mystery for later, he decided to help

"It's that way." He pointed towards the cathedral looking building at the distant, "We're going there ourselves, want to join us?" He added. The blonde haired boy sighed in relief, and answered, "Yeah, sure."

With that, they started walking. Ruby looked at her yet unknown companion and snorted and then burst in to a fit of giggles. Harry looked at her curiously, "What is it Ruby, see something funny?" he asked, amusement tinging his words.

"Yeah", replied the reaper, "Him!" and pointed at the blonde boy. The boy pointed at himself in confusion. "Aren't you the guy who threw up on the ship?" she asked. "Hey!" he exclaimed offended. "Motion sickness is a much more common problem than people let on." He tried to justify his embarrassing display at the airship. "Sure it is." said Ruby with an innocent smile. 'I have a feeling that she doesn't believe Me.' thought the boy looking at girl.

"We never got your name." said Harry, "I'm Harry and that's Ruby." and introduced himself and Ruby. "Nice to meet you guys" said the boy, "The name's Jaune Arc, short, sweet, rolls of the tongue, ladies love it."

Ruby just looked at his failed attempt at being smooth with a deadpan stare. "Do they?" asked Harry with a smirk. "They will" Jaune said nervously "I hope they will, my mom always said…. well nevermind."

Ruby lightly laughed at Jaune and then slightly fidgeted. This all too new for her, and as they kept walking, she couldn't find a proper conversation topic, so she brought the one thing that she could talk about.

"Soooo, I've got this thing." She said as she reached behind her and took out a red gun-like object, which started to automatically unfold itself into a giant scythe.

Both Harry and Jaune jumped back in surprise and shock and then proceeded to gawk at it. "Whoa, is that a scythe?" asked Jaune still surprised by the sheer size of the weapon in front of him. "Yup" confirmed Ruby,-"and it's also a high impact sniper rifle", and she further explained cocking the sniper's bolt back, completely oblivious at the sheer ridiculousness of the weapon itself.

"It's a what?" Jaune asked, confused. "It's also a gun." explained Harry with a deadpan expression. 'Seriously? , Does everything have to be a gun in this world?' He asked himself. "That's cool." said Jaune, as it was the only thing he could come up with.

Harry didn't say anything as he looked at the weapon. It looked beautiful and deadly at the same time, and judging by the small crater left behind by the tip of the scythe's blade, it could easily cut through most Grimm. 'She must have put a lot of work into it.' He thought, developing a bit of respect for the red reaper. He looked towards the duo as Juane decided to unsheathe his sword as Ruby looked on in curious wonder. He also brought a shield with an emblem that also doubles as the sheathe itself and then fumbled it around when Ruby tried to touch it. 'Huh, he really is a novice.' he mused. Then took out a pocket watch from his pockets and realized that they had less than ten minutes before the headmaster's orientation speech started.

"Guys!" he hollered at them, "We don't have much time, let's go before we're late". "Ok", Ruby cheerfully agreed and Jaune only nodded as they started to follow Harry towards their destination. As the main hall came closer, a stray thought kept lingering in Ruby's mind, so decided to act on it.

"Harry?" asked Ruby. Harry turned his head back and looked at Ruby with curiosity, "Hmm?" "Back then, when I was lying at that crater, why did you help, I mean you don't even know me, so why did you help?" asked Ruby looking away with a pained look on her face, flashes of memories going through her head.

"Why, because you looked like you needed help." Harry said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Plus, I get to make a new friend, that counts for something right?" he added. Ruby's eyes widened, and a smile started adorn her face, glad that he wouldn't be like her other 'friends'. "You know Ruby, my mom always said that friends are strangers we haven't met yet." Jaune added his own two-lien walking close behind.

Harry nodded at Jaune, smiling, "She isn't wrong, oh, we're here." he said looking at the two large doors open, with a sign welcoming new huntsmen-in-training.

* * *

Beacon Academy main hall was just as beautiful and impressively made as the rest of the facilities. Harry was struck with a sense of awe as he looked around, it brought back memories and feelings he once had as eleven year old.

The entire hall was made in a gothic design with a bit of modernity thrown in. The wall were painted in colors of gray and white with one wall on the left of the entrance was lined with holograms and the wall opposite to it had a list of names written all over it. Large windows lined the halls bringing in the light of the setting sun, and massive, almost modern looking chandeliers illuminated it. There was also an elevated platform with on the farside of wall with a microphone set up.

As Harry, Ruby and Jaune made their way inside and towards the large groups of students standing near the platform, Ruby noticed her sister was standing inside a large of students on the right side of the platform waving at her. "Ruby over hear I've said a spot!"

"Oh! There's my sister, I'll see you guys later, we'll talk after the ceremony" she said before she took off, ignoring Jaune's awkward attempt at stopping her. With sigh of disappointment mixed with some self-pity Jaune made his to the opposite end of the hall, muttering about not having any cute quirky girls to talk to. Harry watched with confusion as Jaune left, 'He ditched me' he thought a bit offended at Jaune's rudeness, he then looked back, at Ruby and her sister having a small quarrel with the white haired girl he had seen before, Weiss, he remembered Ruby saying her name.

Before he could intervene a faint cough echoed over the hall silencing everyone. On raised platform stood two figures, one was a tall man and another a woman. He recognized them as Ozpin, the Headmaster of Beacon Academy and leader of the Huntsman Core of Vale and Glynda Goodwitch, the Deputy Headmistress of Beacon Academy and master huntress.

Glynda was a blonde haired woman in her mid-thirties, with a strict look in her face and a hawk-like gaze in her green eyes, unlike Harry's, her eyes were a shade of forest green rather than shining emerald. 'She kind of reminds me of McGonagall, well except for the outfit and the riding crop' Harry mused. He was broken out of his musings as Ozpin started his speech.

As the speech continued, Harry absentmindedly watched the other students inside the hall while still listening to the Headmaster. He looked on as their faces shifted from expressions of pride to offense then to slight anger or annoyance. He understood why, Ozpin's speech was both was both harsh and cryptic, yet it was also fair.

The children in this room all trained their whole life to be Huntsmen, yet they all still had a glorified image stuck in their heads and therefore hearing something like this instead of words of congratulations or praise only serve to hammer home the grim reality of being a huntsman. 'Damn Dumbledore clone' Harry thought as he watched the headmaster step down of the platform and Goodwitch coming up and giving instruction on food and sleeping arrangements along with the time of the initiation test.

Deciding that he had enough Harry started to move with the crowd towards the dining hall, but was stopped by a vibration in his pocket. Taking out his scroll, he read the sender's name. It was from Ozpin, sighing he read-

 **"Mr. Potter, meet me at my office after dinner."**

* * *

The elevator doors opened as Harry stepped into Ozpin's office. It was almost empty, he noticed, surrounded in all sides by glass overlooking Beacon and Vale. The only signs of furnishing was the desk and chair on the farside of the office, with a small tea set on the desk. A constant ticking sound permeated the office in a pleasant sort of way. The source of that sound was the ceiling, he noticed. An intricate clockwork consisting of many interlocking cogs and gears were constructed on the ceiling itself and was illuminated by the large orb of light on the top of the tower.

He then noticed Ozpin standing near one of the glass with his cane in one hand and coffee on the other. Somehow knowing he was here Ozpin turned around and greeted him, "Ah Mr. Potter, it's good to see you again."

Harry nodded in greeting. "Professor, you wanted to see me?" he asked, still unsure of what the headmaster wants. Ozpin smiled, "Yes I did, but first I want know how far you have progressed with your training, combat and otherwise."

Harry's face morphed into a scowl with the thought of the training he had gone through or the lack of it. "Not as far as I want to." He said, "The old feather duster just taught me the basics, just enough to fight Grimm, half of the time he was either unconscious or drunk and the progress of my other abilities as you say it, was slow."

Ozpin only chuckled, "Well he's teaching philosophy is a tad bit eccentric, but he has faith in you and your abilities. That is why you are here, so that you may hone your skills and talent, and as for your magic, give it time. I'm sure with constant practice in combat you may be able to use it to your fullest."

"Now the reason why I asked you hear, is the initiation test that will take place tomorrow morning." Ozpin said looking at Harry. "What about it?" Harry asked, he was quite sure that Ozpin was up to something.

"You will be doing the initiation a bit differently." Ozpin continued "Unlike the other students your objective will be different. After the launch, I want to you to go due east towards the old ruins, once you are there you will encounter a very specific Grimm and your task will be to eliminate it."

Harry sighed and asked, "I get the different task thing professor but why am I fighting this unique Grimm, which I suppose is not your regular one. Why not send an expert? I barely have enough or experience against normal Grimm."

Ozpin's glasses shined from the lenses as he adjusted it. "Not all students can use magic Mr. Potter and your current skill level can only be matched by very few of our students. The Grimm in the ruins just recently appeared there. Professor Port tells me that it doesn't go that far from the ruins. Fighting it there will give me a correct benchmark of your abilities, more specifically your application of magic in intense combat."

"So I have to do this alone?" Harry asked. "No Mr. Potter, you will also have a partner with you to assist." Ozpin answered in assurance, he didn't mentioned that a Huntsman will also be standing by.

"This is still a tall order Professor Ozpin." Harry said releasing a sigh. "I know" replied Ozpin, "But as a member of the Brotherhood, We need you to be at your very best and just like him, I also have faith in you. Now get some sleep, you have a long day ahead of you."

"Good night" said Harry as he walked towards the elevator's doors. As he entered the elevator he muttered, "I never asked for this."

* * *

 **AN: Sorry this took so long. College finals are coming up, so the next chapter might take time, but I'll try to make that a little longer. Now I might have made some minor changes which includes Beacon and how its laid out but I'll try keeping this story as grounded to Remnant's lore as much as possible.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Ashes to ashes, Dust to dust.**

 **I do not own Harry Potter and RWBY.**

* * *

" **Avada Kadebra!"**

" **Expelliarmus!"**

Students and Teachers of Hogwarts, The Order of the Phoenix and the Death Eater all watched on in awe as the two spells collide creating a light show of pure power between two wizards battling for control.

On one side was a man that looked more snake than human. Pale skin, bony arms, slit like nose and red eyes made him look even less human. He was Tom Riddle also known as the Dark Lord Voldemort one the greatest Dark Lord of history, the man responsible the chaos and destruction that plagued the wizarding world for decades.

On the other side was Harry Potter, a young man forced to fight a monster because of the prophecy of a Seer and the machinations of an old man. He has lost almost everything against the hand fate has dealt him yet for the sake of what has left continued to struggle against the overwhelming power of the Dark Lord who destroyed his life.

With the Elder Wand in hand, Voldemort channeled as much power he can muster. He had felt the last of Horcuxes being destroyed and this made him even more desperate to end this battle, yet the Elder Wand wasn't responding. Then in a blink of an eye the wand was gone the killing curse rebounded. He watched on as Harry Potter catches the wand and his body slowly started to die, so as a final ditch effort he channeled all the magical energy of his core and muttered a spell he had learned a very long time ago.

" **Exilium"**

* * *

Without warning an inky black spell flew behind Harry Potter and before he could even react, pulled him in. As the darkness surrounded him, he felt nothing but anger and sorrow, he didn't even feel the pain coming from the ashes of the elder wand binding to his skin nor did he notice the Stone of Resurrection he had left behind in the Forbidden Forest, come back towards him. All he could see were his friends calling out his name with tears in their eyes and a smile on Voldemort's corpse as the darkness took over.

 **Wake up! Lazy butt!**

Harry's eyes shot open at the excitable shout to his side. He looked to his right and saw a young woman with short pink hair was bouncing with excitement, trying to wake a young man with long black hair with a single magenta stripe. The man sat up with a tired sigh and lightly glared at his friend. "Nora, other people are still sleeping, could you be little bit quitter." His friend either didn't listen to him or ignored his advice as she didn't stop word vomiting at a rapid pace. With his words being of no use against the pink haired girl, the young man looked towards Harry with an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry about my friend, she can be a bit of a handful, especially before any big events like this.

Harry lightly chuckled at what was most likely a heavily used apology. "Its fine" he said standing up and getting his tooth brush and paste out his bag. "You two get along quite well, being friends for a long time huh?" He knew longtime friends when he sees them, they reminded him of Ron and Hermione, two completely opposite natured people who somehow played of one another quite well.

The young man hummed in agreement, "We've been friends since childhood, my name is Lie Ren, it's a pleasure to meet you" he introduced himself. No sooner had he finished, a pink blur sped past him and suddenly stopped in front of Harry and shouted-

"And I'm Nora Valkyrie!"

Harry stepped back a bit startled by Nora's sudden appearance in his personal space. Despite that he introduced himself. Nora decided to further invade his space and looked closely at him akin to how a detective looked at clues. This proceeded for thirty more seconds, until Nora shouted, "It's decided!" and looked towards Ren, "Renny, Harry's gonna be our new team mate, let's go get cleaned up and get breakfast, and I want pancakes!" With that declaration made, she proceeded to drag a confused Harry and a sighing Ren towards the bathrooms, intentionally ignoring the men's only sign.

* * *

After a rather awkward session in the bathroom, thanks to Nora's disregard of the sign and breakfast which involved Nora trying to cook up schemes on bribing the headmaster to get her, Ren and Harry on the same team, where Harry decided to humor her and suggested to get Ozpin some coffee beans, as he tried and failed to convince Nora that they may not be in the same team together. Nora being Nora ignore all that as they decided to split up to get their weapons from the locker rooms and promised to meet up at later time.

Walking inside the large looker rooms of Beacon's training facilities, Harry looked at his scroll and made sure he had the correct locker number. As he walked towards his locker he noticed the white haired girl who screamed at Ruby was talking with a red haired young women with green eyes or more like trying and failing to convince the redhead regarding something. Deciding to pay them no heed he continued and reached his locker. The locker number was 687, Harry couldn't help but smile at the irony of it. He took out the sole weapon in the locker, a sword in a small scabbard. Harry unsheathed the sword and looked at it. The sword itself was a normal sized double edged short sword with markings on the flat of the bladed reminiscent of the markings on the sword of his mentor. But the most distinguishing feature of it was the lack of a mecha shifting switch meaning that it had no other form, unlike almost every other weapon in Remnant. It's name was Arach. He re-sheathed it after being satisfied with his observation and attached it to the back of his hoodie.

" **Harry!"**

No sooner had he finished equipping his sword a blur of red that he identified as Ruby crashed in to him. The now identified little reaper then decided to bombard Harry with more questions then he can keep up with via her speed-

"Wherewereyou?Iwassoworried,whywerentinthehallafterthespeech?Oooohisthatyourweapon? canIsee?please?please?"

Before being pulled back by the scruff of her cape by a blonde young women. "Whoa there lil sis, let the guy breath, would you?" she pulling her back. The blonde then looked back at Harry with a critical eye that only served to make Harry uncomfortable. She looked back and Ruby and grinned, "I approve, nice catch sis." and then proceeded to give a thumbs up.

Quickly understanding the implication, Ruby started to resemble a tomato, "Yaaaannng! It's not like that, Harry's a friend." She tried to explain with her face still red and telltale signs of smoke and started to pout angrily at her sister.

"I'm only joking sis" the woman named Yang laughed at that. She then approached Harry, "Hey there, the name's Yang Xiao Long, I'm Ruby's older sister, and you must be the guy she couldn't stop talking about."

"I'm Harry Potter, it's nice to meet you." Harry introduced himself, "And just so you know, I wouldn't mind dating her." He said, smiling jokingly at an ever mortified Ruby, who was trying to hide herself in her cape's welcoming comfort.

Yang laughed even loudly at the obvious joke. "Ha! So you do have a sense of humor?" she asked at his confused expression. "I've seen you at the main hall during Ozpin's speech, you were being broody and all Hunts-man like, lemme guess you're the brooding and cold yet soft in the inside type."

"I'm not sure if that's a type" replied Harry equally embarrassed at one of his well-hidden traits being easily identified and impressed at Yang's observation skills, as only Hermione was the only other person that comments on his occasional brooding session. "I'm kind of surprised you noticed." he added.

"Heh, it's skill I picked up years ago." Yang replied with a chuckled, appreciating Harry's compliment. Despite her looks, Yang Xiao Long was a observant young women. Back in Signal many of her classmates judged her based on her looks. Her long untamed blonde hair, statuesque figure and pretty face drew the attention of the male population and the envy and ire of most of the females. They only ever saw the blonde brawler with insane strength and outgoing personality not the perceptive Huntress who learned to read people from her Hunstman uncle. So she was inwardly glad that Harry appreciated her skills and nothing else, heck he looked her in the eyes and talked, most guys wouldn't do that. Even if she was an overprotective older sister, she could still trust Harry being around Ruby.

"Yang?"

She was broken out her thought as she looked back at Harry who was trying to ask her something. "Sorry, you were saying something?" she asked.

"Yeah, why did you leave Ruby behind at the courtyard?" Harry asked. "You do know what happened afterward, right?" he added.

"Huh?" Yang, was surprised at the question, not many people have ever commented on the quirks of her and Ruby's relation. Since they were little she knew Ruby was socially awkward and had a hard time making friends. So sometimes she would leave Ruby alone to socialize with other kids and kept an eye out from a distance. Some may think her unorthodox method may be mean to her sister but this was the best she could come up with. But still, she could acknowledge that yesterday's idea was a mistake and admitting that made her nervous, she normally doesn't admit her faults, especially to someone she just met, she may trust him a little but that doesn't mean she will spill her guts so easily.

"It's ok Harry." Ruby replied sensing her sister's nervousness. "Yang normally does this to get me to interact with people, plus I met you and Jaune, so it wasn't a complete disaster, she means well, honest." Explained Ruby.

"Awwwwh!, you're the best little sister ever!" and then proceeded to be bear hugged by a rabidly happy Yang with Ruby doing her best to get out of Yang's tight hold comically waving her arms. Eventually releasing Ruby from her hug she looked back at Harry and said, "Just so you know Harry, I already apologized to Ruby about yesterday and I wanted to say thank you for helping her." As a sign of their new friendship Yang held out her fist.

Harry smiled at the bond of the two sisters and decided to bump his fist with Yang. He understood her reasoning and accepted it, he might not like it but it wasn't his place to judge her. Familial bonds are different from one another and after seeing different familial bonds via the Weasleys he had gained an understanding of this concept.

" **Would all students please report to Beacon Cliffs, the initiation test is about to start, I repeat, the initiation will start momentarily, please report to Beacon Cliffs."**

"Well looks like its time" said Yang after the announcement. Ruby and Harry both agreed with her and started to move towards the exit, only to be greeted with the sight of Jaune impaled to the wall by his hoodie via an intricate looking spear, with an annoyed Weiss and mortified girl with red hair looking on. As they approached closer Weiss had already left and red haired girl apologized to Jaune and also left.

The now depressed Jaune began to bemoan his inability with women with Yang pointing out that calling Weiss, snow angel wasn't exactly the best idea. "What did I do wrong, I thought girls looked for confidence in guys." He complained even further.

"Jaune, there is a difference between confidence and overconfidence." Harry added his own thoughts. This only serve to depress Jaune even further. Ruby decided to be bit more merciful and picked up Jaune with some words of encouragement, towards the exit with Harry and Yang joining them.

* * *

Over forty potential hunstsmen and huntresses stood on individual platforms with various expressions. Some were calm, almost as if they knew what was coming, some were nervous and were looking around nervously at the forest off the cliff, like Jaune and some were just confused, unsure of why they were here, Harry happens to be one of them. He was standing on the second last platform right beside Jaune, he looked around from his designated area and spotted Nora and Ren on the far left with other applicants and Yang and Ruby close by, with Ruby waving at him.

Before he could wave back, Ozpin and Glynda had already arrived causing all the applicants to quiet down. "For years you have trained to become warriors." started Ozpin with oddly, a cup of seemingly, coffee in his hand, which nobody bothered questioning about. "And today your abilities will evaluated in the Emerald Forest." He finished and nodded at Glynda.

Glynda nodded back and continued, "Now I'm sure many of you have heard rumors of about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of will be given teammates…..Today." causing Ruby to groan at the idea of unknown teammates.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time at Beacon." continued Ozpin after Glynda. "So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." He said with a slight glance at Harry. "That being said the first you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next 4 years."- And then dropped the bomb on the applicants, causing them to look at each nervously. Harry swore he saw the air around Ruby cracked, emanating despair. 'Wait? Landing!?' he thought back looking at Ozpin, not sure on what of he was planning. "After you partnered up, make your way the northern end of the forest." He continued with the instructions, "You will meet opposition, do not hesitate to destroyed in your path, or you will die. You will be monitored and graded for the duration of the initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you accordingly. Any questions?" Juane raised his hand with worry but was promptly ignored by Ozpin who instructed them to get ready.

That only served to confuse Harry even more as he looked at the other applicants assuming different poses with Jaune asking Ozpin questions on landing strategies. Suddenly an applicant was launched towards the forest via the platform. His eyes widened at that, realizing what Ozpin was talking about landing and Juane's current conversation with the headmaster on landing strategies. 'Damn Dumbledore clone didn't tell me about this on purpose!' He thought of the headmaster's successful effort to mess with him. Before he could say anything the applicant on his left was catapulted, alarmed he looked at his own platform and then the smirking face of Ozpin. "Ozpin, don't you darAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" and was promptly catapulted with a screaming Jaune.

Ozpin looked at the students flying towards the Emerald with a casual sip of his coffee. Glynda looked at her colleague and boss with a deadpan expression and said, "Your enjoying this, aren't you?" Ozpin merely gave her a smile and continued to sip his coffee.

* * *

Ruby's exclamation of "Birdie No!" rang through the forest skyline as Harry Potter flew through the air, regaining a bit of control of his impromptu flight. Oddly enough he was enjoying himself as the wind swept past him. 'Reminds me of ridding my Firebolt' he thought. Before long his momentum slowed down as he got closer and closer to the forest's canopy. At the thought of a landing he realized something- 'Crap! Need a way to land, Aura's no good, only had it for a month, maybe this'll work.'

' **Viribus!** '

As he came closer, white circuit-like veins started to spread throughout his body. Crossing his arms over his face and tucking his legs closer, he braced for impact. A quite shockwave cracked the ground as Harry landed and quickly looked around his surrounding for any potential threats and stood up. He sighed, 'Just like old times huh?' and started to move east, deeper into the forest.

* * *

Harry wasn't sure how much time had passed, but he was certain that he was in the deeper area of the forest. The trees were much closer, the grass were longer and the large canopy of the taller trees blocked almost all sunlight, creating an oppressive atmosphere. But what unnerved Harry the most was the silence, he hadn't encountered any Grimm and that worried him. As he came across a small clearing, he stopped as several growls could be heard from the tree lines. Red eyes were first thing he saw as wolf-like creatures with bone masks and protrusions started to emerge, there mouth open salivating of the idea of fresh kills and muscles coiled ready to attack any moment.

 **Start Music: Silver For Monster (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt OST)**

'Beowolves?' he thought curiously eying them with his hand on his sword's handle. 'They're not supposed to be here, what's keeping them here of all places'. From what he learned since he arrived on this world, beowolves tend to inhabit less dense area of forests as prey are likely to come there most often. He fully unsheathed his and counted six as they started to circle around him. The tension was thick in the air as both party stared down each other waiting for another to attack. Growing impatient a lone beowolf lunged forward with its pack following suite.

Harry's left hand flared with blue light as he sent an overpowered **Diffindo** at the first beowolf, cutting it in half. He ducked under a swipe of another and cut its stomach and then disintegrated it with an **Incendio**. Before he could react another beowolf attacked from his left flank and tackled him to the ground as Arach fell from his hand. Before the monster could maul him to death, Harry quickly used the summoning spell on his sword as it flew back and by sheer dumb luck imbedded itself on the back of his attacker's head. As the beowolf in front of him turned to ash, another was coming at him. By now he understood one thing, these beowolf were young, as they fought in a mindless frenzy, and something was controlling them. Quickly, he fired a **Confringo** at the oncoming beowolf and sent a **Bombarda** at the ground in front of the last two, and then moved quickly with **Viribus** , the extra strength from the spell helped him in cutting one down with a wide slash of his sword and killing the other with another severing curse. Before he could put his sword back another louder and more feral growl came from the trees. His eyes widened as another beowolf emerged, but it was different, it was larger with scars all over its body, showing its age and more bone protrusions coming from its back. It was an Alpha Beowolf, and it showed why, as it quietly circled around Harry looking for an open.

Without warning it started to run towards the wizard, jaws open and claws ready to kill. Harry, knowing that this would a much more difficult fight channeled his magic. His left hand lit up, with an over powered **Confringo** ready to launch and the marking on Arach glowed blue as ghostly wisps started to form. The alpha came closer and closer to its target until….it stopped. A black arrow made of what looked to be glass struck its skull, followed by another to the neck and another to torso, and then all of them glowed orange and exploded killing the alpha with a shocked and confused Harry looking on, he was certain that he saw those arrows somewhere.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Harry Potter.", an almost sickly sweet voice called out. Harry's eyes widened as source of that voice emerged from the trees. She was tall as Harry, with bight amber eyes, ash-black hair and a smirk playing on her lips.

"It's nice to see you again, Cinder Fall.", Harry greeted, gripping Arach tightly and with as much sarcasm as he can muster. "Care to tell me, why you're here?" he asked.

The smirk on Cinder's face grew widened in to a false grin, as she replied, "Oh? Don't you know? I happen to be your new partner."

At that moment, all Harry could do was resemble a gold fish.

 **AN:**

 **First of all, I'm so very sorry for the delay. Final exams kept me from finishing this chapter, but hopefully I'll update at a steady interval. Like before constructive criticism is appreciated.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Strange Bedfellows**

I don't own RWBY or Harry Potter.

 **Four months ago:**

In the dead of night at a small forest near Vale's borders, a large black portal appeared in front of a small stream. A young man dressed in what looked like shredded clothing, flew out of it and the portal closed immediately. He laid there, unmoving, his mind in a daze and his head spinning. His body was covered in bruises, blood caked his hair, face and clothes and cuts were littered across his arms and legs. Five minutes later he tried standing up but his body screamed in pain, especially his left arm, it felt if it was burning from both the inside and outside. He looked at it, horrified as the flesh of his arm burned red and the ashes that covered it turned to black boiling ink and started to form a triangle, then a circle within it and then a line crossing both. He screamed in pain as the ink seeped into his skin and formed the symbol of the Deathly Hallows. Fighting trough the immense pain he crawled to the small stream he had just spotted, just so the water may take away the pain of his body and quench his dry throat.

He drank like a man dying of thirst, scooping the water as fast as he can and onto his mouth continuously for several seconds. Feeling a bit at ease, he washed his face of the blood and looked back at his arm. 'What in Merlin's name is happening? One moment I was fighting snake face and then this!?' He slowly stood up and looked around, all he could see were trees and a small stream of water bathed in the light of the moon…..wait the moon?! He looked up, baffled at the sight of the broken moon and his heart hammered in anxiousness as his mind raced with implications of the state of it. He was certain that, this wasn't a dream, the lingering pain made sure of that. His mind tried to rationalize again, that this maybe a hallucination but he quickly dismissed it as everything around felt real and alive, not a fake, and then a thought floated in his head, one single thought- "another world". It hit him like a bludger, this wasn't his world, and this wasn't his **home**. For the first time since he lost Sirius, Harry Potter cried in despair as tears flowed from his eyes.

* * *

He sat down near the stream, his body still protesting from the cuts and bruises, a hollow laugh escaped his throat as more tears streamed down his cheeks. "So this is what I get?" he asked to no one in particular. "Not even a proper death or a normal life huh? This was fate's grand plan? , Trapped in another world with no friends or family?" Thinking of his friends brought him no joy as the last moments of his departure came to his mind. "Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville…I wonder if they think I'm dead or not? I'm pretty sure Hermione would be at a library looking for a way to bring me back, Ron would with her." That thought of that brought a small melancholic smile to his face. Sleep was starting to take over as he slowly stood up and stumbled to the nearest tree. He laid his back against it, thoughts of home were still plaguing his mind and trying keep him awake, but in the end his eyes closed and sleep took over. He didn't noticed that the bruises and cuts on his body were slowly healing and closing up.

Sometime after dawn, Harry woke up from his sleep wishing all that happened was just a bad dream, but to his dismay, he was still here, still in a small forest, close to a stream. Sighing at his predicament he tried standing up and to his surprise, he didn't feel tired or in pain doing it, in fact he felt refreshed. The fatigue and soreness from the battle was gone, his body somehow felt energized and as he looked at his arms, all the cuts and bruises were gone, and judging by the lack of pain, the rest of his body recovered as well. He didn't know what to think about it, on one hand he was glad that his body healed as he might need enough energy to navigate the forest around him, but on the other hand the fact he recovered quickly, too quickly, scared him. Harry looked at his left arm, and the tattoo was still there, he suspected that it had something to do with his speedy recovery.

"You seem lost." An unknown voice to his side startled him. He looked to the source and almost wished he didn't, whatever it was, it wasn't human. It looked thin and frail, wearing nothing but a ragged cloak over its body, its arms were thin and looked more like twigs bent in unnatural angles and its thin long legs made it taller than Harry. But what terrified Harry the most was its face. There was nothing, no eyes, nose, or ears and unlike the dementors he once faced, no mouth. He almost felt compelled to use a Patronus, only to realize he didn't have one. "What's with that look, Harry Potter?" it asked with an unnatural voice in a mocking tone, "or should I call you master?"

Harry's eyes widened as realization dawned on him, the lack of the elder wand on his person, the symbol of the Deathly Hallows on arm, it all made sense to him. "Death?" he asked.

The being in front of him only laughed, making him even more uncomfortable. "What gave that away? Was it my face? Was it my cloak? Or was it your transformation?" it asked condescendingly.

"Transformation?" Harry asked, his voice cracking with fear. Death laughed even harder, his voice alternating between male and female.

"Ha! This is priceless! Don't you get it Harry Potter? Before you even arrived in this universe, you were already the 'Master of Death' or some such non-sense you humans came up with." It said with air quotes for the 'Master of Death' part. "Your supposed title is all that, just a title. But the Hallows? Well, they're something else. You see, when I made those objects for the Peverells, I imbued them with a part of my being, they have an essence of myself and the fact that you united them, caused them to react and fuse with you, body, soul and all, magic itself is sentient that way after all and in doing so, severed you from the thread of fate. To put it lightly Harry Potter, You. Are. Not. **HUMAN**."

All indications of fear evaporated from Harry as his knuckle turned white and the culmination of pain, suffering and loss, led him to snap. "What the bloody hell do you mean I'm not human?! Just because I healed quickly and got a bloody tattoo? I still have my emotions! I still have a heart! I'm still human!" He roared in denial. Death only listened quietly and raised his hand snapped his fingers.

Harry stopped as the sound of the snap resonated around them like an echo and the air shimmered and then like glass, the area surrounding them or he thought it was shattered revealing a bear like creature in front of him. 'What in merlin's name is that?' he thought. Before he could think any further, pain erupted on his right shoulder as the creature covered the distance and bit in to it. Harry wasn't sure what happened next, but his body felt as though it was boiling from the inside as he instinctively raised his right hand to the head of the creature and light erupted. Watching the creature or what was left of it slowly fall to the side and turn to dust, he looked at his shoulder in almost morbid fascination as the flesh and bone put itself together leaving clear skin covered in blood. He looked back at Death and asked the question he was too afraid to ask, "If I'm not human, then what am I?"

"An anomaly, you are nothing more than a being who hovers between mortal and primordial." Death said calmly. "The Hallows in your body essentially turned you into a supernatural being, the tattoo on your arm proves it and from the looks of it your body is capable of conducting magic, with that you also have a little bit of my own abilities including the Hallows. Say, try using a spell and channel it to your hand and see what happens."

" **Lumos** "

It was just like using a wand, Harry concentrated on the incantation and the intent behind it and then instinctively channeled magical energy from his core to his right hand. To his surprise and slight delight, a small ball of light erupted on his palm and with a quick Nox it was gone. He couldn't help but smile at that, since the first time he arrived in this world he had a bit of hope, he wasn't defenseless and he hadn't lost everything, he still had magic, maybe he could find a way back. Remembering that he had the Hallows with him, he tried summoning his cloak. Imagining the feel of being covered by it and the overall feel of the material, he looked down, and for a second he was invisible…until he flickered back to normal. "What?" he asked in confusion.

"What? What? It's only been a day, your body needs time to assimilate" Death said with what seemed to be a snort. "Speaking of assimilate, we need to talk about the purpose of my visit. Do you remember when I told that you were severed from your threads of fate? Well, that's the reason why I'm here. Your half or so primordial transformation and coming here basically cut you off from fate's meddling and now that you're here, you're kind of banished from your plane of reality, sorry. So, you now have two choices, either you could try and go back, I wouldn't recommend it or you could stay here and with fate not pulling your strings and you can follow whatever path you desire." Harry's face grew more and more pale as he listened to Death. In a span of a minute, whatever hope he had to go back home were being shattered in front of him. "Now then, my part of the exposition is done, I have other engagements elsewhere, so with that, I bid you farewell and wish you good luck, see you in an eternity."

Harry blinked once, then twice, and before he knew it, Death was gone. He pursed his lips in a scowl and "Shit!" was the only appropriate response he could come up with. Letting out a deep sigh he walked to a tree and sat down trying process what Death told him. 'Any path, huh?' he thought looking at the tree line. 'At least there's one silver lining in all this shite, no more prophecies or chosen one bullcrap. Maybe a quite normal life here won't be too bad. Ok, first things first, need to get out of here and find civilization.' He stood back up and started to move into the forest, only to come across three more bear like creature he had fought moments ago. "You've gotta be kidding me." He said with a sigh at his horrible luck.

* * *

Three bears, several healed injuries and a heavy dose of severing and reductor curses later, Harry Potter finally managed to get out of the forest. His clothes were barley holding on to his body as the shirt he wore was almost gone and the jeans were badly shredded. Deciding that he can't go walking around naked, he picked up a stick and transfigured it into a grey t-shirt and a quick **Reparo** fixed his jeans. Nodding at his work, he moved forward away from the forest. As he walked further, he noticed the sky darkening and the wind picking up, the light breeze grew into a gale and thunder could be heard from the distant and then the leaves of different trees started flying towards direction he was going. Harry knew in his gut that this was magic, it was simply unnatural for leaves to move this way, so he followed, curious about the spell and whoever its caster was. The wind began to get stronger with every stretch, as he came closer to the source. Then the sounds of gun shots rang through the air, spurring him to run faster. As he came closer he spotted a road with wooden fences and his eyes widened at what he saw there.

A young woman, possibly in her early twenties, was kneeling to the ground with an arrow sticking out of her back was held upright by what looked like two teenagers. In front of the woman was another girl, possibly his age, extending her arm and pointing the palm of her hand at woman's face. As a scream rang throughout the area, Harry's mind was in turmoil as he looked from quite a distance away, whatever was happening looked bad and whoever the woman was might die a brutal death via what looked to him like torture. A part of him wanted to help but another part of him argued back, unwilling to get involved in something he knew nothing about, and go down a path that contradicts his new goal in this world. 'Come on Harry, you could just walk away, just walk away, just walk away, JUST WALK AWAY!' he thought furiously. He turned back and walked a few steps, until another scream prompted him turn around as lights started glow in the distant. His jaw clenched tightly as another scream followed, he couldn't bear it, and the screams reminded him of Hermione. "Never again" he said making his final decision and disappearing with a crack.

* * *

Cinder Fall was a prideful woman, she valued power and strength above everything and despised any kind of weakness. In her eyes the world should be ruled by the mighty and the weak subjugated by them, might was right after all. So to walk the path of the mighty she needed power, and here she was, on the precipice of receiving what her mistress refers to as true power, the power of one of the Maidens, the Fall Maiden specifically. She couldn't help but smile as the powerful Maiden was brought to her knees before her by her subordinates, it filled her with a sadistic sense of satisfaction. As she approached the woman, her smile widened even further as fear plagued the woman's face. 'How pitiful, to think that the powers of the Maidens given to such an amateur.' She thought approaching the woman. She peeled back the sleeve covering her right hand, revealing a seal, it was imprinted to her skin by her mistress so that she may control the parasite that was implanted within her. She didn't like, it was a leash but it was also necessary and she would be fool to disobey the Queen. Pointing her palm at the quivering woman, she waited for the parasite to appear. She gritted her teeth in discomfort as the seal glowed and a small bug like Grimm appeared on her palm.

"Please no, please, don't do this." Pleaded the Maiden in front of her. She couldn't help but feel disgusted and disappointed with the Maiden. She expected so much more defiance and strength and all she saw in the Maiden's eyes were weakness.

"Oh don't worry." She said in false reassuring tone. "Unlike you my dear, I will use the power you have more productively, can't have all that potential wasted now can we?" The woman tried to plead again but was too late as black, almost liquid, tendrils were plastered across her face. The tendrils started to glow as the power of Fall Maiden started leave the woman and to Cinder. She could feel it, power unlike anything she has ever experienced was flowing within her and it brought nothing but elation to her as the screams of the Mai-no the woman in front of her echoed across the landscape. She is the Fall Maiden now, she was no longer a weak human, and she had power now.

CRACK!

" **DIFFINDO**!"

Before she or her subordinates could process what was happening, the tendrils were cut clean of and another 'crack' could be heard as someone appeared out of nowhere in front of the Maiden and pushed them back with a powerful force.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" asked the stranger in front of them. Cinder's blood boiled in rage as she could the feel of the burn of hunger for the rest of the power permeate within her. Whoever this 'boy' was, just interrupted her ascension and he will pay dearly for it. She took a deep breath, attacking with anger would be pointless, so she decided to be a bit more tactful. She looked at the confused Emerald and Mercury and signaled them to stand down, and decided to address the stranger.

"You know, it's considered good manners to introduce yourself before you start attacking someone, its basic etiquette." She said with a false smile.

"Yeah? Well it's considered good manners to not torture someone from where I come from" he replied back. The young man's hands were twitching and judging by his heavy breathing, he was slightly tired.

"From the looks of it, you're not a huntsman." She pointed out, getting a curious look from the boy. Her hand were slowly moving towards her bow/swords, she was careful not to alarm him. Whatever his semblance was, it was strong. "Then this, does not concern you, I suggest you to leave, before you get hurt." This was obviously a lie on her part, she couldn't have any witnesses except for Emerald and Mercury.

"It kind of does concern me. Are you daft? Someone's being tortured to death and you expect any decent person not do something? Sorry, I'm not gonna let you hurt her, whoever this is. So why don't you and your friends just bugger off." He said standing firmly before the unconscious Maiden, his hands clenched in fists, glowing with what she assumed to be his semblance.

Cinder merely smirked at the boy's defiant attitude, it was cute. "So you're one of those foolish Hero-types, huh?" she asked in a mocking tone. "Very well then, as you so clearly have a death wish, I shall grant you that. Emerald, Mercury if you will." she gestured her subordinates towards the boy and in an instant they moved towards him.

Mercury was the first to reach the boy, he tried to deliver a kick to the head but was surprised that there was a barrier which cracked upon impact. Emerald decided to flank right with her twin pistol-scythes but managed to hit nothing as the stranger disappeared with a crack and reappeared behind them and started to shoot out beams of light. Cinder dodged the red beams and got close enough, just to dodge another blue beam of light. Mercury wasn't lucky tough, as he was hit and started to dance uncontrollably. Cinder raised an eyebrow at that and re-evaluated the stranger's semblance, it was unusual and she had hunch on what it was. She signaled Emerald to use her semblance, as she moved back and notched an arrow. The stranger was clearly effected as all his light beams went passed them and Emerald got closer and managed to get a shot at the boy's stomach. She smirked as the boy clutched on to his stomach as blood was pouring out. She was right, whoever he was, wasn't using a semblance as he couldn't even use aura, then he was using some form of magic. Her mistress had warned her about them. From what she had been told, Ozpin, her mistress and the Maidens were not the only magic users of Remnant and she had strict orders to eliminate any who posed to a threat to them. She decided to take the shot and the stranger found himself with an arrow to the heart. A moment later the arrow exploded showering the road with blood and blasting the stranger quite a distance away.

"Should we check on him?" asked Emerald, approaching the body of the stranger, both of her guns primed and ready to shoot at any sign of movement.

"He's chest was blown to smithereens, there's no way he'll get back up. Serves the bastard right though, he got in our way and got what he deserves." Said Mercury, still sore about what happened earlier.

Cinder didn't say anything as she turned away and approached the maiden. With the nuisance out of the way, she could finally attain what she longed for. The maiden's powers would be hers and she could practically hear it calling out to her-

BOOOOM!

Out of nowhere, a shock wave forced her and her subordinates to step back, as the road cracked and dust rose covering the road. Using her arms to protect her from the dust, she spotted a silhouette. Her eyes widened with recognition as the dust cleared. He was tall at nearly six foot two, with spiked back short black hair and red eyes and was wearing a grey button up shirt, black slacks, black formal shoes and a tattered brown cape. He also wore a crooked cross as a necklace and had a massive sword with intricate patterns on its blade. He was Qrow Branwen, master huntsman and commonly known among huntsmen and criminals alike as the Reaper.

Cinder gritted her teeth in fury as the he stood between her and her prize. Without the full power of the maiden, she knew full well that fighting the old huntsman would be akin to suicide, even if she had assistance from Emerald and Mercury they would lose. She knew that she had failed her mission and her mistress would not be happy but they have escape, there was no other options. She nodded to Emerald to use her semblance again as she used an ice dust with fire from half the maiden's power to create steam, before the huntsman made his move. Quickly signaling her subordinates to follow her, they narrowly escaped from the aura slashes of the huntsman's blade cutting through the make-shift fog and escaped to the forest.

Qrow Branwen sighed with frustration as he watched the assailants of the maiden disappear into the forest as the fog around him dissipates. He had went ahead of Amber to clear out the Grimm, until he started hearing gunshots and then thunder did he knew that something was wrong. Transforming to his crow form he flew back and was greeted with something he hoped to forget. A boy as old as his niece had his chest blown open and blasted away like a ragdoll and Amber laying on the road, arrow on her back, he assumed the worst. Now, here he was, checking the maiden for any sign of life. She was still alive although barely, but the marks on her face did not bode well. He looked back at the body of the boy and frowned with frustration. He was a huntsman for Oum-sake, his damn job was to protect people and now he has a nearly dead assignment and a definitely dead kid to handle, he didn't know how to explain this to Ozpin. He brought out his scroll and sent out a distress beacon, he needed to get Amber to safety first. Gently picking up the maiden he placed her at the LZ and approached the boy, the best he could do now, was give the kid a proper burial. The body was lying face down, so he decided to turn him over. Let it be known that Qrow Branwen had seen a lot of weird and disturbing shit in his 40 or so years of living, but what he saw easily cracked his top ten. Blood, bones and flesh were knitting back together, leaving unmarred skin and blood, and on top of that he was breathing.

"What the hell?"

* * *

 **Current Day:**

Harry Potter kept glaring at the back of Cinder Fall, as they continued to trudge through the forest. He still couldn't wrap his head around that Cinder Fall of all people defected from the Grimm Queen and was now working with Ozpin, it just didn't make any sense. He knew for a fact that Qrow warned the Brotherhood about her, plus Ozpin and Glynda personally check all applicants' information, prior to acceptance and evaluation. He looked back at Cinder and frowned, he tried asking her, albeit at sword point, but all she gave was a vague answer involving her nearly dying and something to do with making a deal with Ozpin, and then started to move towards the forest, citing that they needed to finish the task at hand. So leaving all that, he could safely conclude that, this was Ozpin pulling a Dumbledore on him. 'You've got a lot of questions to answer Oz.' he thought. 'Maybe I'll banish his coffee stash if he starts to keep things to the chest again.'

"We're close." said Cinder turning towards him and breaking his train of thought. He looked further ahead and spotted telltale signs of man-made structures. He looked back at her and nodded. As they kept walking, he noticed that she looked different than before. Her hair was longer, almost reaching her back. Instead of wearing a red and gold dress, she was wearing a beige leather, sleeveless jacket, brown gloves, a sarashi tied around her chest and hips with gray pants and boots. She also had a pauldron on her left shoulder and a brown belt with multiple pouches. "See something you like?" asked Cinder looking above her shoulder with a casual voice.

"Sh-shut it!" he snapped back, flustered and embarrassed that she caught him staring. "This the place?" he asked, trying to composing himself. They were out of the forest area, on to a large clearing with the old ruins were close by.

"Oh my! Is that how you treat a teammate?" she asked in mock hurt tone as they came close to the old castle like ruins. "You should really learn to trust me, after all we are partners."

"Trust you? Woman, you blew a hole through my chest when we met and now you're here and all you did was give me vague answers for an explanation. Trusting you would be the last thing I'd do." He said tinged with a bit of anger. "The only reason you're here is because your mistress disposed you like a useless tool, am I right?"

"Shut up."

Cinder's voice was cold, her face changed from smirk to rigid and cold indifference, but the fire in her amber eyes only gave away her anger.

"Oh did I touch a nerve?" asked Harry. He knew, that he shouldn't be doing this, but he couldn't let go of the vindictive feeling in his mind.

"You don't know anything." Said Cinder. The mask she put on in front of him was cracking, showing anger and a bit of desperation. He just needed to push a bit harder. 'It'll be easier to judge her, if she showed her true self.' He thought.

Before he could say anything further, Cinder quickly dragged him by his hood behind a broken wall. "Did you hear that?" she asked cautiously, looking slightly to the side of the wall. "I don't think we're alone her." She looked a bit more and then spotted it close to the broken arch of a castle. It was humanoid, with a body made of dark wood, black as any Grimm but also covered with skins of different animals. Its arms and legs were made of what looked like broken tree branches and its head was only the skull of what looked like a deer's head with large antlers. It turned around from its position and nearly spotted her with red eyes. "Shit" she cursed, returning back to the broken wall.

"What?"

"We found our target, it's a Leshy." Said Cinder, there was a bit of fear in her voice. At his questioning look she decided to explain. "They're an ancient type of Grimm, capable of manipulating the forest itself, they also have control over lesser Grimm and not only that, they're bodies can't be harmed with steal, only fire can be used and also, they are very intelligent." Before she could say anymore, her eyes widened as screech rang through the forest.

"MOVE!" shouted Harry, as both of them out of the dove away from the wall as it was destroyed by massive tree roots. The Leshy has sensed them and was approaching slowly, with several Beowolves surrounding it.

 **Music: Steel for Humans (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt OST)**

Harry's left hand flared with magic as he drew Arach and Cinder had already drawn her twin swords/bow as the Leshy screeched orders to the Beowolves to attack.

Cinder was the first to make contact, as she easily dodged the Beowolves attacks and countered attacked with a flurry of calculated slashes while also dodging the massive tree roots controlled by the Leshy. Harry on the other hand was killing of Beowolves with **Reductor** and severing curses while also trying to get in range for an **Incendio**. He stabbed one Beowolf through the head while reducing another to dust with a **Reducto**. Two more were coming at him immediately after, one to his right flank and one from the back. Using **Viribus** , he kicked off the ground and back flipped over the beowolf on his back. Stabbing the beowolf through the neck, he used the momentum generated and decapitated it, while also suprising the other beowolf with a quick **Confringo**. He looked towards the Leshy, which was still standing and watching Cinder kill of the last of the Beowolves. His eyes widened as the Leshy suddenly turn into black miasma and moved towards Cinder.

Harry disappeared with a crack and reappeared behind Cinder's back just as the Leshy appeared and swung its massive arms at them. Cinder was only made aware of this after hearing the sound of Harry appearing and before she could react was already thrown alongside Harry as the shield spell he casted was broken quite easily. She was baffled by the boy, he could have let her die but still chose to save her. Did he think she was weak? Some kind of damsel in distress he needed to save? Just thinking about it dented her pride and infuriated her. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she asked standing back up and glaring at him.

Harry matched her glare and said "Saving your sorry arse. At least a thank you would work, you know." He might hate her, but didn't feel like letting her die, his saving people thing made sure of that.

"I didn't need your help." said Cinder gritting her teeth.

"Oh yeah? Well it certainly looked like you did." said Harry. "As much as it pains me to say it, we need a plan, if we're going to survive this."

"Then, what do you suggest oh great leader?" asked Cinder with as much as sarcasm as she could muster. "Because the Leshy isn't going to wait for us to make a plan."

Right on cue the Leshy sent out another barrage of tree roots and walked towards them. Harry and Cinder dodged the roots again and Harry sent out a **Bombarda Maxima** at the Leshy's feet, stopping it for a while longer.

"You said that it could only be harmed by fire, right?" he asked. Cinder nodded wordlessly. "OK, use your explosive arrows to keep it distracted and weaken it, I'll try to get close and finish it off."

"So the heroic route huh?" asked Cinder with a mocking tone. "What makes you think I wouldn't just shoot you in the back?"

"I don't." said Harry as he used **Viribus** to run forward. The blade of his sword glowed blue and then yellow.

"Tch, damn hero types." Said Cinder, watching him charging the Leshy. She attached her swords into a bow and notched an arrow. "Don't make me regret this Potter." she said releasing the arrow at the Leshy.

Harry moved quickly to the side of the Leshy, as it screeched with arrows peppering its body and exploding. Before he could move closer, the Leshy noticed him and sent another barrage of tree roots forcing him to dodge again. It then turned into black miasma again and moved behind him, ready to use its massive claws to tear him apart. It stopped as another set of arrows hit it at its legs, forcing it to kneel. Taking advantage of the opening created by Cinder, Harry tried to use an overpowered incendio but was caught off guard as the Leshy screeched again and swatted him away. It turned to miasma again and started to attack Cinder. Anticipating it coming towards her, she dodged its claws and stabbed an arrow on its arm before putting more distanced between them. The Leshy screeched in pain as the arrow exploded on its arm. Cinder shot two more arrow at its chest as it stood up, staggering it. At that time, Harry gathered as much as magical energy as he could on to Arach, despite his semi-immortal self, overusing his magical reserves would tire him out as the heavy breathing was the indicator.

The blade of Arach glowed even brightly as yellow, mixed with red and orange created a fire like state of energy. It was ready. "Cinder move now!" he shouted as he used the last of his magical energy to power another **Viribus**. White circuit like veins appeared all over his body as a resounding shock wave broke through the forest as he ran forward. Cinder heeding Harry's word dodged the Leshy and moved away watching with slight awe as Harry rand forward and used his momentum to swing the blade shouting-

" **Conflagratio Maxima!** "

First light appeared, blinding light consuming the entire forest. Then heat, the temperature around the clearing was almost unbearable and then the roar of fire as it engulfed everything in sight and then nothing. As the light and smoke cleared and Cinder finally saw what happened. The forest area behind the Leshy was gone, incinerated, leaving only a massive trail of embers. As for the Leshy or what remained of it was ashes spread in the shape of its body. She looked towards Harry who was breathing hard and barely standing. He then laid down on the singed grass still trying to catch his breath.

"Need help?" asked Cinder approaching him. She wasn't sure why she asked, she normally wouldn't but this somehow felt ok to her.

"No, I got this" replied Harry trying to stand back up, only to fall back. "Ok, might need some." He swallowed his pride. This woman may or may not be his enemy and he might not trust her yet, but a little bit of help wouldn't hurt.

"What's the magic word?" asked Cinder, her lips curling into a smirk.

"Please" he answered rolling his eyes.

"Was that so hard?" asked Cinder reaching her hand to him. Her mind was still in conflict as she still felt a bit of hatred for him but now also a bit of respect for him. Maybe this arrangement with Ozpin wouldn't as horrible as she thought it was.

* * *

 **AN:** This was the longest chapter I have ever written. Now some stuff I need to address-

Cinder Fall will be a little OOC, she may not be good now, but getting there. I tried twisting the concept of MOD into something a little more unsettling and the Leshy they fought was an inspiration from the Leshen of the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Could you guys give some suggestion for Cinder's weapon name. Thank you.

Constructive criticism is appreciated.

Next update at the end of the month(hopefully)


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Even Stranger Bedfellows**

 **AN:**

So yeah, sorry it took this long to get this chapter done. I don't exactly have an excuse, other than college, mid-terms, par-time job and Persona 5. Now that Volume 6 is airing, I'm debating whether to use it as a part of the story or not. Already watched the first two episodes, gotta say, its getting a lot more interesting, Volume 5 was a let-down, hopefully this volume does better.

 **Kid Coheed:** I really like the name you gave, thank you for the suggestion and yes Arach is a lot more than just inspired than Qrow's weapon and the symbols will play a key role in Harry and Qrow's relationship. As for new spells, Viribus will most definitely not be the only one.

 **Yami-Guy:** Was thinking about adding monsters from TES franchise, unfortunately only played Skyrim.

* * *

The constant ticking of the mechanism above, echoed across Ozpin's office as he sat and faced Harry Potter with a neutral expression. It was right after the final phase of the ceremony when the young man asked to talk with him alone. He was quite pleased with the new students coming to his school, particularly teams RWBY and JNPR, they had great potential and he was confident that, they would excel even further with guidance from Beacon and its staff. But his focus was now on Beacon's first two man team, Team CHFP (Sapphire). They're formation caused quite a stir among the student bodies as such an event have never happened, although he did manage to placate any concerns of unfair selection, citing the number of qualified applicants to be higher than normal and the fact that the Huntsmen Core cannot reject candidates with aptitude in battles with the Grimm. Of course, his core staff knew the real reason for the formation of such a team. On one hand they have an anomaly, whose range of abilities potentially exceeds his own yet are still unrefined. On the other hand they have a young woman, with skills and knowledge that outstrips almost all students here and one who was once driven by ambition, now lost and looking for purpose. If they can nurture their skills and show them a potential path, then they might as well be the strongest huntsmen duo, Beacon may have ever produced. There was just one issue they needed to address and he has a hunch that Harry was here to talk about it.

"So, Cinder Fall?" asked Harry, showing no emotion, but the slight twitch in his eye was a dead giveaway. He was annoyed if not a bit angry and Ozpin couldn't blame him.

"Yes Harry, Cinder Fall." answered Ozpin in a polite tone.

"Are you insane?"

Ozpin couldn't help but be amused by that question. He had been asked this question so many times in his life time that if he had a lien for every time someone questioned his sanity, he would be able to build another Beacon.

"No Harry, I'm quite sane." He answered.

"Then why is Cinder Fall, of all people attending Beacon Academy?" asked Harry. He knew, Harry wouldn't hold grudges, and the only reason he was asking this was for the safety of the other students. So he decided to not beat around the bush any longer.

Ozpin, poured a cup of coffee for himself and another cup for his student, and nudged the cup forwards. "Tell me Harry, what is the primary duty of a huntsman?" he asked.

Harry was confused at the obvious question, but he decided to Humor the old head master.

"A huntsman's core duty is the annihilation of the Grimm and to save…" he stopped as his eyes widened in realization. "You cannot be serious?" he asked.

"Harry, the Cinder Fall you know now, is not the Cinder Fall you once faced. One of the teachers found her nearly dead, on the edge of the Dark Continent and brought her to me. Instead of the ruthless killer I was told about, she was nothing but a husk of her former self, and from her constant muttering, was no longer a maiden, her powers were taken from her." Said Ozpin with a slight frown. "She was lost and without purpose, a young woman with nowhere to turn to. So I decided to give her a choice, become huntress or stay at Vale and re-build her life. You can already tell what she chose."

Harry wasn't sure where the headmaster was taking this conversation. He understood Ozpin's reasoning and respected it, but he wasn't sure why the professor paired Cinder with him.

"I didn't save her." Said Ozpin breaking Harry's train of thought.

"What?"

"I didn't save her Harry, I merely gave her a choice." Said Ozpin with sadness in his voice. "And you and I both know what she would do once she graduates from Beacon or maybe even before."

"Get herself killed. She's going to go after Salem." Said Harry as realization dawned on him.

Ozpin nodded. "Yes, and that is why I want you to save her. Not from the Grimm or criminals or terrorists but from herself. As her partner, it is you who could save her from a path of self-destruction. I know, I'm asking too much of you, but this is my plea, not as your headmaster, but as huntsman to another future huntsman."

Harry had no reply for this. The revelations he experienced today was already exhausting. But what Ozpin was asking of him now, beyond overwhelming. He could have taken the easy choice and say no, but his old mentor's words rang through his mind.

" **There will be a time when we must choose between what is easy and what is right.** "

So he decided to do the right thing. "Alright fine, just don't expect a miracle." He said with bit of hesitation.

"Thank you Harry." Said Ozpin with a smile on his face.

As Harry started to walk to the elevator he turned back and asked Ozpin the question that had been plaguing his mind throughout the conversation.

"Professor?"

"Hm?"

"Why did you choose me to be her partner, me specifically?"

"Because just like her, you also know what it's like to lose everything that once gave you purpose." Answered Ozpin with a sad smile. "Empathy is a great ability, Harry. It helps us connect with others and understand them. You may not understand her now or tomorrow but one day you might. For now, try not to antagonize her. Good night and welcome to Beacon."

Harry merely nodded and left pondering over Ozpin's answer. He wasn't sure how the next four years of his life would go, with a partner as troublesome as Cinder Fall would be, he knew it would most definitely not be a peaceful one. But if was honest with himself, he was looking forward to it. 'Welcome Beacon indeed.' He thought to himself with a wistful smile.

* * *

The screams of one Cinder Fall rang throughout the nearly empty halls of a castle like structure that was standing on the desolate landscape of the Dark Continent. She screamed herself hoarse as red Grimm-like veins as sharp and thin like needles from the body of the Seer penetrate her arms, chest and legs, for what it felt like the hundredth time, and spread through the veins of her own body like lava. It all started after the failure of their mission, they had just arrived at her mistress's fortress and were led by Watts directly to the meeting chamber where Salem and her inner circle waited for her and then everything went wrong. As she relayed the events leading up to her acquisition of half of the maiden's powers her mistress's anger grew, she didn't show it, but Cinder felt the sense of dread permeating the room they were in. Cinder knew her mistress never tolerated failure and she was not forgiving type. The mentioning of the fact that a magic user delayed the process and that the Reaper has seen her face, thus removing any chances of retrieving the other part of the fall maiden's power, served as the final nail to her coffin. Salem grandly declared to her audience that she would be made an example of, that failure in the servitude of the Queen will result in dire consequences. Cinder would've taken her punishment until Salem declared what would happen to her. They were going to extract the maiden's power from her! Her power! The power she worked for so tirelessly, the power she desired for so long would be taken from her! She tried to protest but was instantly rendered unconscious as Tyrian Callows's stinger struck her back and she collapsed as Tyrian's insane laugh rang through her ears.

Now, here she was two days later, lying naked on a cold metal table, paralyzed down the neck and in more pain than she had ever endured. Her mind was in turmoil, following the betrayal of her mistress. The same mistress who once offered her a place by her side, the one who offered her to become strong so that she may never be weak again, the one for whom she committed countless atrocities in the name of gaining power, was now taking the same power that she was convinced by her mistress that it was hers and now, it was being taken from her. She couldn't help but glare at the monster standing close with rage and newfound hatred. "Tch, tch, what's with that look Cinder dear? It's quite unsightly to see such a pretty face with such a vulgar expression." spoke Salem with amusement. She wanted to scream at that bitch, but her throat was too sore and in pain to form a word let alone a sentence. Then suddenly the pain went up and she screamed again as the Grimm's veins started to glow a dull yellow as the Maiden's power started to pour into the glass like body of the Seer. She struggled again, against the paralysis, but it was in vain. Tears started to form in her eyes as she watched as the last of the Maiden's power leave her body.

"You may be wondering why I did this to you?" asked Salem with a mocking tone. "Well allow me to explain in the simplest way possible, you are nothing but a tool. A valuable tool, but a tool nonetheless. You would have been my crowning achievement, my great answer to Ozpin's pitiful simple soul and my agent to obtain the relics of power but now, you've exposed yourself to the Reaper and in doing so jeopardized my plans. You've become a defective tool and like all defective tools you will be disposed of and replaced. But don't be distraught my dear, know that your sacrifice will be used as a stepping stones for my goals." A knock interrupted them, Salem looked at the door and looked back at Cinder and smiled maliciously, "It seems your replacement has arrived, please come in."

The door opened and figure stepped in and closed it. Whoever it was, was human, female at that, but not. She looked familiar to her, but her mind was too hazy from the pain and the darkness from the room didn't help her see very well. As the figure emerged from the darkness to the light her eyes widened as she recognized who it was.

"E-Em-Emerald?"

Cinder spoke her subordinate's name despite the difficulty of speaking. She looked closely as the haze started go away and was surprised by what she saw, Emerald looked different, she still had the same height and body structure but she looked drastically different than before. Instead of medium brown skin it was pale white, her hair changed too, the mint green was replaced with just white hair and her already red eyes were even darker and seemed to glow, and she was wearing a loose black gown but what really caught her eyes were the purple and deep red veins that crisscrossed her skin. 'She looks like Salem, but why?' she thought. 'What the hell happened to you Emerald?'

"Beautiful, isn't she?" asked Salem, walking behind Emerald and touching her arms and cheeks. "I've always admired mankind, their resilience and ingenuity are both commendable. But what intrigues me the most is their ability to adapt. The human body in many ways are a perfect test bed for experimentation, and here is the end result, a hybrid of Grimm and Human. Of course, I've done this before but most of them were failures, they died in a short period of time, their souls ultimately rejected the Essence of Grimm and their bodies broke apart. As time progressed, the time for the process of transformation was greatly reduced and later I came to realized that a secondary source of aura was needed for stability and lo and behold the Maidens' Powers were the answer and now you will bear witness to the fruits of this endeavor." She stood back in front of Emerald. "Take of your clothes my dear." Emerald wordlessly obeyed and removed her gown. Salem looked back at the Seer and nodded. Understanding her order, the Seer approached Emerald and injected its largest tendrils in to her arms, chest, legs and spine. Slowly the tendrils glowed with power as Emerald's dead eye glowed with green flames and a key shaped symbol appeared on her back. Within moments a small shock wave of power erupted and Emerald stood back up, her transformation was complete.

Smiling at her success, Salem turned back to the paralyzed Cinder who watched in horror at the metamorphosis of her once loyal subordinate. "You see dear Cinder, you would have had the same privilege as young Emerald has now, although that process would have been slower, but alas, fate has deemed it otherwise." She chuckled softly, "She did it for you, thinking that accepting my offer will spare you and in the end paid the price for her sentiment.", She nodded at Emerald, who redressed herself and exited the room as Tyrian Callows entered with small maniacal giggles and stood close to the door. She looked back at Cinder for the last time. "This will be the last time we see each other, goodbye Cinder Fall, may the afterlife be kind to you." As she approached the exit, she turned to Tyrian and said, "Be a dear and dispose of her."

Tyrian giggled even more loudly, "Can I play with her first, mistress? Please?" he asked. The prospect of breaking the once proud member of his mistress's inner circle filled him with a euphoric sense of joy.

"Why of course, you may do what you want with her, as long as you dispose of her in the end, it matters not." Said Salem with a calm expression. Her objective has already been completed and she could care less about the girl. Tyrian laughed with joy and thanked his mistress as she left the room, he looked back at Cinder and licked his lips and approached her.

Cinder's mind had gone blank, the pain, exhaustion and the shock was too much for her and now here she was helpless and in the mercy of the monster of man in front of her. She had seen his handy work, he didn't let them pass painlessly and some even died in the most horrific way possible. As the maniac laughed uncontrollably and dragged her by hair through the hallways to the lower level, she couldn't help but resign herself her imminent fate. Yet apart of her mind was still kicking and screaming for her to break free. 'Is this it? Is this going to be my last moments on this world? Violated and killed by a cretin of a human?' she thought balling her fist…..wait fist? She looked back at her fist and then tried wiggling her toe. To her surprise they were moving. 'The effects of the venom are gone, I can move again. The fool didn't bother to check.' she thought letting a bit hope enter her mind. As Tyrian dragged her into a small cell completely open to the air outside and only surrounded by three walls with a door, she decided to take her chance.

She pumped as much as aura as she can as dirt and grime under her quickly formed into a small black knife made of glass. Before Tyrian could react she quickly gripped the knife and kicked his shin as hard as she can and rolled forward to edge and threw it. By some miracle her aim was true and it struck Tyrian's right eye, before he could use his aura.

"ARGHH! You bitch!"

As Tyrian tried to get his bearings through the pain, Cinder's mind was already working overtime as to what her next move would be. Her body was still weak and fighting Tyrian or anyone else would be suicide, she was tempted to just attack Salem now, but she knew that she wouldn't make it to the throne room intact, she had to escape. She looked beyond the edge of the cell, it was easily a hundred meters high and the Grimm roamed the area near the castle. 'Better to die like this then in the hand of that bitch and her servants' she thought. She looked towards the edge and had finally made her decision, summoning what little aura she had left, she jumped.

* * *

Amber eyes shot open as Cinder Fall, quickly sat up. She looked around frantically with heavy breaths and slowly calmed down plus she was greeted with the sight of her sparse dorm room, illuminated by the light of the tower outside. Checking the time on her scroll which was 5:30 AM, she properly looked around the dorm for the first time as she had immediately collapsed on her bed, after being led to her dorm room by the deputy headmistress and given the password via scroll.

It was a decent sized room, with enough space for two beds, which was meant to be for four, two cupboards and two study tables. There was also a small hologram tv and a balcony overlooking the grounds. On the right was a door that led to the bathroom and another door to the left led to a small kitchen both of which, she hasn't seen yet. The entire room gave of both a cozy yet professional vibe, it was perfect for teams of small sizes.

She looked to the other bed on her right side and spotted Harry Potter, sleeping peacefully. Cinder Fall prided herself in the art of reading people by their mannerism but she couldn't understand the enigma that is Harry Potter. She could have chalked it up to not knowing him long enough but there was still something about him that baffled her. On one hand he would appear to be a naive teenager with a tendency to brood and was very trusting of others. 'How else could Ozpin recruit someone with power like his.' she thought. On the other hand he took to leadership like fish taking to water, and carried himself as someone used to the harsh reality of battle. His magical abilities also intrigued her, it was unlike anything she had seen before, albeit, the only other magic she'd seen were Salem's and the Maidens. She had already been briefed on his magic, which she guessed was the reason he survived their first meeting. 'Quite a first impression' she thought with a grin. Deciding that it too early to get up she opted to lie down and get some sleep and then proceeded to stare at the ceiling for the next 30 minutes. 'Dammit', having had enough with her attempt to sleep, she slowly slipped out of bed and walked to the bathroom. It was of modest size, white tiles with a toilet and a shower stall and a sink and mirror at which she looked at herself.

Her long silky hair was frazzled and matted with sweat and there were telltale signs of bags in her eyes. "Pathetic." she mumbled to herself, disgust lacing her voice. Quickly washing her face and brushing her teeth she finished her morning rituals and decided to walk to the balcony and watch the sunrise. The cool air of the morning greeted her as she looked at Beacon Academy at all its glory as the sun rose.

"Can't sleep?" asked a familiar voice behind her. She looked back as Harry Potter walked out onto the balcony. He was wearing green track pants and a black t-shirt. His hair was messier than ever, but there was no sign of drowsiness. He walked up and stood beside beside her and leaned against the railings.

"Not really" she replied. "So, what's on the agenda today, fearless leader?"

Harry shrugged. "Nothing much, get breakfast and go to class, and yes before you say it, I know, you already know most of the stuff, but we need to maintain a low profile-"

Cinder sighed with disappointment, "Well, that's just boring, here I thought we were going after Salem and her flying monkeys."

"If you let me finish, we will maintain a low profile but that doesn't mean we can't find anything interesting in Vale." Harry said. Vale itself was large city and from what Ozpin had told him the Queen still had pawns within the city, they might not be in her inner-circle but they were still loyal, to what end or whatever their reason was, that he did not know. Fishing out his scroll he opened the VNN app, and scrolled down to a particular story that had caught his eyes.

"Here", he said handing the scroll to her, "What do you make of this?"

There was small but noticeable frown on Cinder's face as she read the headlines.

"Dust robberies by The White Fang, all but one vendor found dead on site."

"Not that, this isn't interesting, but how does this pertains to us?" she asked in an uninterested tone.

"You know something about this." he said as her body slightly stiffened. "Your face kind of gave it away plus, you did tell the Brotherhood that the Vale branch of the White Fang was supposed to work for you, looks like some took over."

"Or it could be something else" she argued back not wanting to admit that Harry might be right.

"It might, but the murders are indiscriminate, meaning that this wasn't terrorism, but a killing of any witnesses and if they were robbing the place they would've taken the cash, which leads me believe that something else was going on." said Harry, "So here's what we will do, we investigate around the crime scenes during the weekend and the Fang would have bound to notice us, especially you, and that might lead us to a flying monkey."

"I assume Ozpin sent his men to investigate?" she asked.

"Not really, the Council pretty much denied Ozpin's offer to help, they wanted the VPD to look after it, apparently it was a minor issue to them." said Harry with a hint of bitterness.

"So then Ozpin is sending us then?" she asked again.

"Not really." answered Harry sheepishly.

"Oh? It seems the hero-type can rebel, and here I thought you only worked for Ozpin." said Cinder with a smirk on her face.

"I don't work for him, I work with him." he said with a scowl.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." she said with a smirk, walking back inside, with him following. "Well I'm going to take shower, your welcome to join me." said she, her smirk ever present as the bathroom doors closed, leaving a spluttering Harry, his cheeks were bright red.

"S-shut it!"


	6. Chapter 6

I do not own Harry Potter or RWBY

AN: So, before we start, I would like to apologize for the very late update. To be honest, I kinda lost interest in this project, that combined with college and now job hunting took me away from fanfics. But, there was still a niggle in the back of my head that I should at least see this through. So here it is, a small chapter, basically me testing if I can write it or not. Updates may be twice or thrice a month.

* * *

Chapter 6: Reflections

Qrow Branwen had been a huntsmen for about 23 years and in the span of his career he had seen and had been a part of weird supernatural situations. Whether from his encounters with unique Grimm in the remote places of Remnant or his jobs for Ozpin, he had seen more weird shit then he cared to remember. Heck his family including his twin sister have and are still part of the supernatural. Magic wasn't a new concept to the Branwen family, and their knowledge and secrets were the only thing he hid from teammates and Ozpin. Call it familial duty or something else, but that would be the last thing he and Raven promised their father on his deathbed, and he intends to keep it that way.

But, what was happening before his very eyes was by far the weirdest and also the most disturbing thing he had seen. A boy, no older than his oldest niece, laid on the cold hard ground beside the road to Vale and by all circumstances should be dead. His chest was practically non-existent, as all he could see was just blood slowly dripping out as whatever organ that was left was nothing but red mush. But the weirdest was still to come as he approached the body, his eyes widened as what was once nothing but blood, bones and sinew, slowly started to repair itself. First the bones, then flesh and then skin. He wanted to chalk it up to the kid's semblance, but it looked too otherworldly to even qualify as one, it felt more like magic, and that raised red flags in his head. As he cautiously approached the kid, he noticed that he was still breathing, he could only assume that the boy was unconscious. Carefully coming close, he noticed that the kid was smaller than the regular teenage boys in Remnant, his body looked malnourished, and there were more bones than actual muscles, it was like the kid was starved for a number of years in his life, practically stunting his growth, he-

The kid's eyes just opened and before Qrow could react, he was already up and frantically looked around until his eyes were on Qrow as he backed away with his hand slowly glowing. Deciding to make sure that the kid doesn't panic and do something drastic he approached him slowly, his hands wide open in front of him, showing the boy that he meant no harm. "Relax kiddo, I'm not gonna hurt you." he said as gently as possible. He thought of the best way to calm the kid down and decided to take the simplest approach.

"Name's Qrow Branwen, nice to meet ya kid." he introduced himself. The boy hesitated for a bit before he said, "I'm Harry, Harry Potter." As the boy introduced himself, Qrow sighed internally in relief, it wasn't much, but it was progress. Judging by the way he talked and the way the boy looked at him with a certain degree of caution, Qrow could only assume that the kid had seen some combat and whatever happened here wasn't exactly his first fight. The boy had this look in his eyes that can only be seen on veterans, not many kids his age had that look and in Qrow's mind that only raised more questions. Deciding on questioning the kid later he decided on getting him, the kid and Amber out of there, there's no telling when those assailants would be back and they were a bit too exposed for his liking. He quickly reached into his pocket for his scroll, opening it he pressed on the icon that was similar to Beacon's only difference was that there were two lions on both sides of the axes.

The icon glowed for a moment until another screen appeared on the scroll showing they're coordinates and a symbol of a microphone. Pressing the mic button Qrow spoke as clearly as possible.

"This is Master Huntsman Qrow Branwen, Code Name: Reaper, requesting extraction on my coordinates. I have a high priority V.I.P and a civilian with me, V.I.P is injured and is in need of immediate medical attention."

Within seconds another voice came through the scroll.

"This is Vale Huntsmen Corps, we read you loud and clear, extraction in two minutes, hang tight."

With a sigh of relief he looked towards the boy who was barely standing, he wasn't sure if the kid could go on or just fall over but he had to keep an eye on him. There were still too much mystery surrounding the kid, and whatever his powers were raised even more questions. So he decided to test something.

"Hey kid!" he called out to Harry, "Good news, someone's gonna pick us up and get us to Vale. If you're planning on not staying in the middle of No Man's Land, I could give you a ride there."

"Vale?" asked Harry, with a confused expression.

'Oh? This is curious.' Qrow thought, intrigued by the kid's basic lack of knowledge. Even if you were from a remote or a brand new village, you would've still heard of Vale, there was no way a kid on the road to Vale itself with would've never have heard of it, that made no sense at all. 'This is getting interesting.' he thought, and decided to push a bit more.

"Never heard of Vale, kid? It's the largest city on this side of the continent and the only stable kingdom. How have you never heard of it?" He asked with a curious expression. "You lived in an isolated village or something?".

Harry's back went straight just for a second, but it was enough for the old crow to know that he was hiding something.

"So, where'er from kid?" he asked. "Gotta be close by, judging from the looks of you."

"From the looks of me?" Harry asked trying to hide his unease.

"You got no luggage kid." answered Qrow, "Heck, you don't even have a small backpack. So where are you from?".

"Um, from Surrey." he replied with unease, that was too easy not to ignore.

He sighed, subterfuge was getting him nowhere, and said, "Look, kid first of all there's no town called Surrey, around here or even far from here and second I know you're hiding something and before you panic, I'm not gonna do anything to make you talk. Just like I said, I'll give you a ride Vale and you could go and do whatever you want as long as it ain't illegal over there."

He watched carefully as the kid's face shifted from confusion to contemplation and finally to resolution.

"Why are you trusting me so easily?" he finally asked.

Qrow just shrugged and said, "This isn't about trust kid, this just me doing my job and also hoping that you don't make me regret my decision on bringing you back to civilization."

Just as he finished his sentence the noise of a dust engine could be heard from a distance as a Bullhead marked with the Vale Huntsmen Corps insignia.

"About damn time." he said with a smirk on his face. He looked over at Harry who was looking at the landing Bullhead with awe.

"If you can walk then get on the Bullhead" he said to Harry who only nodded and started walking as he looked at the Bullhead with awe.

As he approached and picked up the unconscious Maiden, he heard a slight thud, as he looked back as Harry was face down on the grass, clearly knocked out, whether by exhaustion or hunger, he didn't know. Picking Amber up he signaled the pilot to carry the kid. As he finally approached the Bullhead he gave a tired sigh and said, "Just another day in the office."

* * *

The first thing he felt waking up was warmth and then comfort, heck, this was the most comfortable he felt in a long time, not since staying with the Weasleys right before Fluer and Bill's wedding. As he opened his eyes he was greeted with an unfamiliar ceiling, it was bright white, almost blinding. He squinted his eyes and looked to his left, there was just a door and a small sofa. There was also a sound coming from his right side as he looked at the source of the constant beeping, a display of sorts, showing images he didn't understand understand. But the smell, the smell was something he was used to, the smell of blood mixed with medicine. He had been to the school infirmary way too many times to not recognize it. 'Guess I'm in the hospital, again.' Harry thought with a quite sigh.

Quietly sitting up, he took in the relative silence. He still had not processed what happened to him, stranded from home, humanity taken and now stuck in another world where people can or maybe do magic. The fight with those three people was still fresh in his mind. The way they moved and fought was almost superhuman, he wasn't even sure if they were using magic or not. The woman they attacked, he wondered if she was ok or not. Speaking of the fight another thought came to his mind.

'Bloody hell !' he thought in a panicked state, ' I died, again, that girl with the weird arrows shot me and I bloody exploded !'. He quickly looked down at his chest and saw it to be intact, confirming him of his current state, he was, for all intents and purposes immortal. Harry didn't know what to feel at that moment, only the dawning realization that he achieved what Voldemort couldn't and in the end all he didn't feel powerful or great, only tired and hollow. This situation he was in seemed so ridiculous, even by his standard to it was almost funny rather than sad, he chuckled lightly looking up at the sterile ceiling.


End file.
